A few lovely things for the first non-rainy day in a week.
One of the things I did on my jam-packed weekend in Bend a few months ago was check out some of the cute little antique shops that are scattered around. There is something about finding an item that you love, and knowing that it has had a whole other history that you’ll never know about before you found it that’s really neat.
When I was creeping through the old hardcover books and magazines at the back of one store, I found this magazine, A Night at the Moulin Rouge, published in 1939. It has pictures and descriptions of all of the different performing acts, and lots of beautiful women.
I bought it right away, but I haven’t decided what to do with it. I wanted to frame it and hang it on the wall, but the photo spreads inside are wonderful so it would be a shame to only have the cover on display, but it’s also pretty old so I wouldn’t want to just leave it laying around without protecting it somehow.
I was just reading back through some of my old posts from last year, and remembered this post about all of the things I wanted to accomplish in 2013.
The one thing on my list that I absolutely wanted to do was the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, which I did with my mom and sisters in September. I also wanted to take a class, and I took several last year including pottery, chocolate making and a blog design course online.
I did work on my spanish a bit more than I previously had, but not nearly as much as I wanted to, so that will have to stay on the list for this year. I did, however, learn to make pico de gallo, and it was friggin’ delicious.
My other goal for 2014 was to eat more adventurously. It was a pretty broad goal, that could mean almost anything really. I did eat fish a few times, I even made it myself at home once, generally though, I’m going to have to call that one a fail.
For 2014, I would like to:
1. Work on my Spanish. For real this time.
2. Travel. I have some really big plans for 2014, they aren’t ready for sharing yet but it’s going to be a very exciting year.
3. Volunteer. I’ve volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Foster a Dream and a couple of other charities a few times, but I’d like to do it a lot more. It’s fun, it makes you feel good, and it helps someone else, so there is really no downside.
4. Get wedding dress pictures done. I’ve been wanting to get some cool, artistic photos taken of me in my wedding dress ever since the wedding (so a year and a half now) but I keep putting it off.
5. Finish a novel. I’ve been working on writing a novel for a few years now, I actually have two going because I kept switching back on the plot in completely opposite ways to the point where it was really two totally different stories. I’ve been scared to talk about it or tell anyone about it but I’ve decided that maybe posting about it will give me the push I need to finally finish. I don’t even care if it’s never seen or read by another living soul, I just want to know that I was able to do it.
6. Experiment artistically. It is entirely possible that I have no artistic talent whatsoever, but in the last year I’ve started playing around with painting and pottery, and even though nothing I have made so far will never been seen by anyone (except my lovely husband who adores all of my experimental endeavours. Probably.) I think that the attempt can be just as important as the outcome. Plus, it’s fun.
7. Photograph things. I bought myself a really nice camera last year for Christmas, and even though I absolutely love it, and just the fact that I use it instead of the old battered point and shoot that I used to take all my pictures with has improved my photographs exponentially, I still don’t really know how to use it. There are tons of cheap photography classes around, and even free meet ups where you can learn about photography, so there is really no excuse, except for possibly that the entire series of Friends is on Netflix and I can’t leave the house or shower until I finish watching it.
It’s probably unlikely that I’ll be able to do all of these things as well as I’d like to be able to, but it’s important to set goals for yourself, even if it’s only so you can see how much farther you still have to go.
I received a Barnes and Noble gift card for my birthday about 5 years ago, and I set off to the store to claim my prize. I have been known to spend a good chunk of my time at bookstores, once I accidentally spent 6 hours in Chapters and didn’t even realize it. My frantic mother almost killed me, but I had just been browsing through all of the wonderful books and completely lost track of time.
I spent hours searching through every section trying to find the perfect book, it’s really a lot of pressure trying to make a decision like that. Or as Drew Barrymore put it in Ever After, “I could no sooner choose a favourite star in the heavens”.
Eventually after a lot of indecision and minor panic attacks, I came to the photography section, where I found this little gem. It’s possible I had been living under a rock, but I hadn’t ever really been exposed to Life magazine before, and I was completely blown away by the photographs inside. I bought it immediately, and have some of the images hanging in my room to this day.
Today I was creeping around on Amazon looking at Christmas gifts, and I happened into the section on photograph books. It’s taking every ounce of will power I possess to remember that I am supposed to be buying things for other people, not for myself, but there are a few I’ll be keeping my eye on until the new year.
Lillian Bassman: Lingerie
Jerry Schatzberger: Women Then
A few lovely things for this very cold San Francisco day.
A few weeks ago I was struck by inspiration, and as usual, a burning need to get started at that exact moment. I decided my house was boring and needed something really special, and that I would like to be surrounded by beautiful words at all times. I decided to pick my favourite piece of writing and transcribe it and paint it onto the awkward stair wall in my kitchen.
This was a bit of a predicament because I wanted to get started as soon as I had the idea, but also I couldn’t decide which quote or poem to use. I thought about just choosing one quote, but then I pictured myself writing that out over and over 400 times and decided against it.
After flipping through a few of my favourite books and bugging some friends for inspiration, I decided on one of my favourite poems, I Have Loved Hours at Sea by Sara Teasdale, and set to work. Coincidentally (or completely on purpose, if it’s not him reading this) the boy was at work so I was determined to finish it before he got home so I could surprise him. And so that he wouldn’t be able to stop me from doing it. But mostly so I could surprise him.
I realized quickly that one poem wasn’t going to be enough, since I was less than half way down the skinniest part of the wall and was almost finished, so I picked another poem to add.
It quickly became apparent that that wasn’t going to be enough either, so I added in my favourite Neruda Sonnet, one that was read at our wedding. In the end, I also added in my favourite Alice in Wonderland quote, and finally made it to the end.
It only took me about 2 hours to get all of the writing on the wall, so I figured I was well on track to finish before the boy got home from work. It turns out, painting takes a lot more time than just scribbling with pencil, who knew?
I finally finished painting almost a month later, although after the first weekend of almost 6 hours of working on it, I took about two weeks off to regain my will to live.
Derek walked in on that first day and found me on the floor tired, stiff and covered in pencil lead and paint.He took one look at the wall, one look at my bedraggled, exhausted face and proclaimed “I love it! And I love you! Let’s go take a nap.” He is nice, I like him.
It was definitely worth all of the work it took to finish, it makes me happy every time I look at it, and makes me feel like this is really my house. I am basically Harold and the Purple Crayon, but older and a girl.
It’s definitely not perfect, I generally have serial killer handwriting at the best of times, but nobody will ever be able to think it is a stencil, or that I didn’t put my own blood, sweat and tears into it. It’s kind of amazing to be able to just randomly draw all over the walls whenever you feel like it without worrying about getting in trouble with anyone. Sometimes being a grown up is a pretty great.
They say a picture is worth 1000 words, although in our modern society of selfies and food-stagrams, most pictures seem to be worth far less.
But every once in awhile you see an image that makes you remember that photography is an art form, and that some people have the ability to capture an amazing story with just the snap of a shutter.
Reuters released their top images of 2013, and they are awe-inspiring. You can check out more of the images here.
A little bit of loveliness, because it’s Friday.
Just one favourite today. My mom painted this for Derek and I as a gift for our first anniversary. We met in Hawaii, and all of the signs point to places that are special to us.
Lanikai is my favourite beach, Derek used to work at Sand Island, and the Barefoot Bar is the place where my parents met him for the first time.
I love it.
And also, my mom has mad skills.
loveliness. 